RENO, Nev. — Sharron Angle strode to the microphones here and made a vigorous defense of her fiercely conservative positions, renewing her calls for the elimination of the Education Department and signaling that she still supports a Social Security system that will eventually be “transitioned out.”

Speaking to supporters here at the Atlantis Casino before a meeting of the Washoe Republican Women, Angle also stood by her claim that creating jobs is not a senator's responsibility, a contention that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has turned into a high-dollar attack ad.

Instead, she said a senator must foster an environment for lower regulations and taxes that would spur job growth and called government “the problem.”

“Eighty percent of our economy is with small business — they’re the engine that drives this nation, and we need to be building a climate for them, not thinking about whether the senator can create jobs,” Angle said. “We have to challenge Harry Reid. When he thinks as a senator he’s creating jobs, then why are we at 14.2 percent unemployment?”

Since winning the June primary, Angle has faced questions over whether she is moderating her staunchly conservative views to appeal to independent voters who will likely determine the winner of the November election here. But on Wednesday, Angle signaled that she doesn't intend to retreat from the same views that have made her a favorite of the conservative tea party movement.

In some cases, though, she is embracing more politically palatable language, even if her positions haven't changed.

In her speech to a mostly older audience, Angle said Social Security should be protected for senior citizens and that eventually people should have the option to “personalize” their retirement savings so they don’t have to worry about the government "raiding" the accounts." She made a similar argument in statewide TV ads after her previous statements were sharply criticized by the Reid campaign.

Addressing reporters after her speech, Angle was asked about her old campaign website, which called for a Social Security system that is “transitioned out.” Her website no longer carries that language, a fact she’s emphasized in the past, including during the primary, when she said the country needs to “phase Medicare and Social Security out in favor of something privatized.”

“It’s not really a change — a change in language, perhaps, but not a change in direction,” she said Wednesday. “The change is just because Harry Reid has so distorted and misinterpreted my words that I’ve had to explain those words; the words are really the explanation of a policy I’ve had from the beginning.”

She said the policy is to “pay back” senior citizens for the money they’ve put into the system. Going forward, she would give people the option of leaving that “Social Security-type system and go[ing] to something more personalized,” she said.

Pressed if she still wants to eventually phase out Social Security, Angle stuck to her talking points that that the entitlement’s trust fund has been pillaged by “Harry Reid and his cronies for over the last 24 years.”

Not only has Angle faced Reid’s attacks over Social Security, but the majority leader has increasingly taken her to task for her calls to eliminate federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Department and Education Department. Still, in light of public outcry over huge deficits, Angle seems unfazed, saying that states have sovereignty under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.

“As an educator, I make a direct reference to the Department of Education at the federal level,” she said. “They are a one-size-fits-all policymaking group, passing down policy to the states that fits no one.”

She added that the No Child Left Behind law — enacted under President George W. Bush — simply places a “burden on classroom teachers,” particularly since it’s long been underfunded.

“We need to keep those monies here in the state,” she said.

In her speech, Angle also embraced a hard-line approach to immigration, saying there need to be “more sheriffs” like the controversial Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona. On health care, Angle called for the health care reform legislation to be defunded and repealed and she said that Congress should impose a rule prohibiting lawmakers from adding extraneous provisions onto bills, thus eliminating federal earmarks, like the billions Reid has steered to Nevada over the years.

Since winning the nomination, Angle has been criticized for dodging the press to avoid discussing her controversial views. But she appears to be trying to defuse that perception, speaking to reporters for five minutes after the speech, where she also addressed a much-discussed article in the Nevada press by former Tonopah Times-Bonanza editor Bill Roberts, who wrote that he witnessed Angle in the early 1990s voice criticism of a decision by a local football coach to hand out black jerseys to players because the color black could be construed as Satanic.

On Wednesday, Angle, a Christian conservative, seemed to dispute Roberts’s column, saying the two have “completely different recollections of what went on in 1991” but without elaborating.

Asked how her religious views inform her public decisions, Angle said, “That’s my value system. Many people embrace my value system because they know I’m not going to lie, I’m not going to steal, I’m not going to cheat, I don’t make deals,” she said.